"For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven" (2 Cor. 5:2).
Those who think that the Christian life promises uninterrupted “happiness” are sorely deluded. Life is difficult and, for the Christian, is filled with righteous suffering and marked by a painful longing to be with Christ. Paul admitted this to the Corinthians, saying that he longed to be in heaven. His desire for death was not the kind of escapism that we see among the lost. Many people would rather die than deal with the struggles of life. This was not Paul’s attitude. “It was not death, not annihilation, nor mere exemption from suffering; but to be raised to that higher state of existence in which all that was mortal, earthly and corrupt about him should be absorbed in the life of God, that divine and eternal life arising from the beatific vision of God, and consisting in perfect knowledge, holiness and blessedness,” Hodge wrote.
The “home” that Paul refers to here is not his resurrected body but his home in heaven, that celestial mansion God had prepared for him. “The Christian’s heaven is to be with Christ, for we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is,” Hodge explained. “Into His presence the believer passes as soon as he is absent from the body, and into His likeness the soul is at death immediately transformed; and when at the resurrection, the body is made like unto His glorious body, the work of redemption is consummated. Awaiting this consummation, it is an inestimable blessing to be assured that believers, as soon as they are absent from the body, are present with the Lord.”
While we are cast down by the struggles of life and filled with an aching desire to be in heaven, we are not discouraged. We are confident because, as the redeemed of Christ, one day we will go home. The Spirit of Christ dwells within us guaranteeing that when we die we will be with the Lord. Until that day arrives, though, we must walk by faith, trusting that God will fulfill His promises. Our salvation is not complete, and until it is, we must stand firm in this life of sorrows, confident that one day we will leave this troubled world and rest in our heavenly home. “Therefore we do not lose heart.… For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:16–17).
Second Corinthians 4:16–5:8 is filled with some of the most hopeful language in Scripture. Read it again and absorb its hopeful message. Then, as if you were writing to a depressed Christian friend, construct your own letter of encouragement and hope. Keep what you have written for your own meditation.
